September is here and the apples in the orchard are finally ready! It was a hot and sunny growing season with plenty of rain except for August which was a little dry. Pests were practically a non-issue since last year the apple crop was a total bust due to a spring heat wave and bloom killing frost.

Yesterday with the help of a friend I picked Ellis Bitters, Majors, Tremletts Bitters, and Somerset Redstreaks. The Majors were very heavily laden this year. Tomorrow I'm gonna tackle the Dabbinetts which also have a lot of fruit. The trees, all dwarfs, are averaging just under a bushel each. I was originally thinking of fermenting everything separately, but there's so much fruit that It'll be too hard to process individually (Pressing will be done by a local orchard) so it'll probably just be a big blend of bittersharps and bittersweets which can then be blended with Northern Spys for some acid if needed.

Forgot to bring my refractometer so I didn't get any sugar readings, but I'll get some tomorrow and post the results along with some tasting notes eventually.

This'll be my first ever cider made from trees I've cared for and fruit I raised since they were buds. Had to share my excitement!

__________________In all the states no door stands wider,
To ask you in to drink hard cider

Congratulations!!! I'm probably a few years away from my trees bearing fruit and seeing these posts give me hope. Granted, I can only grow dessert apples here in Phoenix, but still. I love seeing cider growers get their first bushels.

__________________Cider and Juice in the Desert...and I occasionally brew beer.

This is great! How much cider are you expecting to yield? I think I once read that it takes 25 of those 5 gallon buckets full of fruit (apples / pears) to yield 5 gallons of cider.

Harvest is ongoing for the next 3-4 weeks, if the first trees were a good indicator, I should be getting just shy of two tons of apples. Depending on the extraction yield of the equipment it should result in 200-300 gallons of fresh juice this year!

__________________In all the states no door stands wider,
To ask you in to drink hard cider

Two tons of nice ripe cider fruit is pretty awesome. I can see why you send it to be pressed, but I would want to press it myself. For me that is a big part of the fun - when you are tired and filthy from a long day crushing and pressing apples. Wouldn't miss it for the world.